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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23381962">Schism</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/avearia/pseuds/avearia'>avearia</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Phic Phight 2019 [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Danny Phantom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abduction, Blood, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Coercion, Death, Delusions, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Kidnapping, Manipulation, Medical Trauma, Mental Instability, Minor Character Death, Murder, Phic Phight 2019, Prompt Fic, Restraints, Set During The Ultimate Enemy, Stabbing, Tragedy, Unreliable Narrator, Violence, Vlad doesn't see himself as a villain, but he definitely is one, he's just too deluded to tell, heyheyitsstillgay, speedyowl152, this one got kinda dark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:49:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,372</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23381962</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/avearia/pseuds/avearia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Why exactly did Dark Dan merge with Vlad and kill his human half anyway? And how many details about the incident did Vlad twist or skip over when he told Danny the story? - From the Phic Phight 2019. </p><p>  <i>Ten years down the line, Danny hears Vlad recite the lie he's been telling to himself for years.</i></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>(both mentioned in passing), Danny Fenton &amp; Tucker's Parents, Danny Fenton &amp; Valerie Gray</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Phic Phight 2019 [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1679998</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>98</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Schism</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This one got kinda dark. </p><p>This was prompted by Speedyowl152, aka heyheyitsstillgay, who wanted Vlad's side of the story in TUE. This isn't exactly how I, personally, think it would've gone down, just one way it <i>might've.</i> </p><p>Lots of implied stuff here, but most important part is the aspect of Unreliable Narrator. Patches of Vlad's story in The Ultimate Enemy didn't add up for me, and the flashbacks we saw in TUE could easily just be Danny imagining what is being described to him, rather than the truth. </p><p>Vlad has ample reason to lie, given he's powerless and speaking to the very person he's wronged. And maybe it wasn't even a lie; maybe Vlad's just deluded enough with his past that <i>his</i> truth is enough to give us - and Danny - the wrong idea. </p><p>So what actually happened that night?</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong>Schism<br/>
</strong>—</p><p>Vlad had been expecting him.</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>"Ah. Bright boy."</em>
</p><p>—</p><p>Years, left to his own devices, with half his being ripped from him, Vlad could do nothing but watch the world crumble around him. He'd kept tabs on Dan, as best he could, sending probes into the ghost zone and hacking into Amity's many emergency surveillance cameras during each sporadic attack.</p><p>The lunatic had finally managed it - finally punctured Amity's impenetrable walls, sweeping in with a terrifying new power, a ghostly wail, and it seemed all was lost - when the unexpected happened; a young, naïve Daniel Fenton stumbled into the frame.</p><p>The moment he saw the boy on the footage, Vlad knew he'd come. Stranded in the future - Where else, on this decimated Earth, would Danny turn, but to the dilapidated mansion of his archenemy?</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>"I…. Don't want to fight you."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"No. No you </em>
  <em>
    <strong>Don't</strong>
  </em>
  <em>."</em>
</p><p>—</p><p>Vlad knew he'd come, but seeing him here, his thin form haloed by the shimmering green of the portal, was another thing entirely.</p><p>Guilt flooded in. Vlad felt his insides knot and slither and sink.</p><p>Staring into Daniel's wide, young, innocent eyes, burning with a flickering, righteous fury - anger seeping into every crevice on his face -</p><p>It felt like a memory come to haunt.</p><p>"Come to kick a defenseless old man while he's down?"</p><p>Daniel hesitated a moment at that, the beam in his eyes softening. His eyes, snapping around the dimly lit basement cave - searching for threats among the supplies and equipment that Vlad'd jammed along the walls - finally settled on the shadowed chair where Vlad sat. He squinted.</p><p>"Defenseless?" Danny asked, wary. "…Old?"</p><p>Vlad tore his eyes from the consoles and spun his chair, turning to face Danny head on. Danny's eyes, so accusing before, suddenly lifted, the suspicion replaced by mute shock. They stared at one another for a long moment.</p><p>"Man," Danny whispered. "What happened to you?"</p><p>Vlad knew he wasn't much of a sight to see. Beard grown long and shaggy, suit tattered and stained and ripped to shreds. The weariness in his bones would no doubt show on his face - the world had changed, and Vlad with it.</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>Just maybe—not enough.</em>
</p><p>—</p><p>"I could ask you the very same question, my boy," Vlad murmured, eyeing Daniel with tired eyes. He reached for his cane. "Although, perhaps…" he stood, leaning heavily into the support, drawing closer for a better look.</p><p>Danny leaned back slightly as Vlad leaned in, inspecting his teenage face and body, unscarred by battle. Unmarked by grief.</p><p>"…I should asked what <em>hasn't </em>happened to you," Vlad finished, "…Yet."</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>The ground shook with the force of the explosion, burning and bursting and shattering the Nasty Burger outwards, a bomb on a quiet little street in the small town of Amity Park, loud enough to echo around the world.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>A young boy raced for the flames, arms outstretched - "NO!" - but the damage was already done.</em>
</p><p>—</p><p>Danny's eyes widened, his pupils shrank. He took a step back; one step, but no further, and after a moment, raised his chin. He had a clear question in his eyes, one that he didn't speak.</p><p>So, the boy knew.</p><p>But how much?</p><p>Vlad shook his head, eyes sad. "If it's any consolation, they went quickly," he said. "…They felt no pain."</p><p>Danny's face crumpled a bit, still in shock. His eyes strayed to the newspaper on the floor of the lab.</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>NASTY ACCIDENTS FOR FENTONS AND FRIENDS, read the headlines that day. The whole nation heard about the tragedy; the boy who'd watched his family and friends die right in front of him, left as the sole survivor of a tragedy that rocked the little town of Amity.</em>
</p><p>—</p><p>Vlad placed a hand on Danny's shoulder, then dropped it, turning away.</p><p>"Unfortunately," Vlad said. The words fell from his lips without a second thought, spinning the tale. "…The same could not be said of you, Daniel."</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>The community stepped up, almost immediately, to support the boy who'd been invisible almost all his life. The Mansons paid for the funeral, commissioned the statues, spared no expense in their grief and their endeavors to hold onto the last link to their daughter - through her best friend.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The Foleys opened their doors, pulling Danny into a home where he would never have to sleep alone. Their house was already filled with Danny's things from years of sleepovers with Tucker - 'Hardly a difference,' Maurice insisted, whenever Danny got too close to asking if he was a burden.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Valerie Gray glued herself to his side, there to comfort at a moment's notice. She'd gone through family deaths before, though understood that her mother's death by illness and Danny's traumatic experience were two very different beasts.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The funeral was held a week later, and Danny, though shattered by grief, did not stand alone.</em>
</p><p>—</p><p>Vlad lifted his face to look at the ceiling, pained.</p><p>"With nowhere else to go, you came to me—"</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>"I'm not leaving." </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Dammit, Daniel, your parents are gone. Your friends are </em>
  <em>
    <strong>gone</strong>
  </em>
  <em>. And all of it - your fault! If you'd just listened to me, let me teach you like I'd insisted—" </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"My family… Sam and Tucker… they died because I used my powers </em>
  <em>
    <strong>wrong</strong>
  </em>
  <em>. Because I was selfish. Scared. I didn't trust myself to face my future and now I don't have one." </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You always have a future. By </em>
  <em>
    <strong>my side</strong>
  </em>
  <em>." </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"No. I'm staying. I won't leave Amity undefended - who knows what could happen? I won't put other families at risk just because mine are gone." </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Daniel, either you come with me or I drag you back with a court order. As your rightful godfather—" </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I'm not leaving." </em>
</p><p>—</p><p>"Me—the only person on the planet who could possibly hope to understand your situation."</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>Maddie, gone forever. Jack—he'd never imagined his revenge like this. It was supposed to leave Vlad triumphant, not make Jack a pitiable martyr. Jazz—well, she'd had a bright mind. Could've been of use. The loss ached in his chest, almost too deep to be matched, he was sure. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>But at least he'd salvaged Daniel, the only other living Halfa on the planet, before anything worse could happen. Even if he'd had to zap the boy with the Maximus near-hourly to keep him safely locked in the basement. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>The boy would come around. In time. </em>
</p><p>—</p><p>"All you wanted was to make the hurt go away."</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>"Stop! I </em>
  <em>
    <strong>will </strong>
  </em>
  <em>find a way out of here, and when I do, I'll </em>
  <em>
    <strong>kick your ass </strong>
  </em>
  <em>into next week!" </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I know you're grieving, you're not rational - "</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"</em>
  <em>
    <strong>You're</strong>
  </em>
  <em> the one who's not rational!" </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"It's been over a month, Daniel, and you still refuse to eat, refuse to live with me, refuse to be at my side—we only have each other left, can't you see that?" </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Maybe </em>
  <em>
    <strong>you're</strong>
  </em>
  <em> alone. Not me. And when I get out of here—" </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"—I'll make sure you </em>
  <em>
    <strong>can't</strong>
  </em>
  <em>."</em>
</p><p>—</p><p>"I honored your wishes…"</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>In the end, Vlad had to strap him to the table, to make him stop fighting. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Perhaps it was cruel, to do the operation when the boy was awake, but he needed Daniel to see that there was no avenue out but through him. The hopeless situation would only sink in if he felt his ghost half leaving him bereft, like everything else in his life. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>He pulled on the Gauntlets and unsheathed the claws. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Vlad—DON'T!"</em>
</p><p>—</p><p>"No more painful human emotions to drag you down."</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>Vlad's main mistake, in hindsight, was underestimating Phantom. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Together, Phantom and Fenton were weak, tiring easily, wracked with doubts, conflicted with morality. It had always been easy to string the boy along in his machinations, dance him like a marionette, due to their gap of experience and power.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Vlad had always assumed he'd been the one pulling the punches in the fights. Not so. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Free of his mortal body, brimming with power and pent up rage, and the scraps of his humanity chained to the table, Phantom was free of his weak inhibitions… </em>
</p><p>
  <em>There was no chance to escape. </em>
</p><p>—</p><p>"Sadly," Vlad met Danny's eyes again, marveling in the horror he found there.</p><p>Raising his eyebrows, he explained. "That freed you to rip the ghost out of me."</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>The split, the schism, was something Vlad felt down to his heart, his very core, as Phantom seized the Gauntlets and split Plasmius from Masters, throwing each to opposite sides of the room. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>The emptiness left in his Ghost Half's wake, it never healed. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Plasmius, snarling with rage and loneliness and wounded pride, rose to fight, rose to put things back the way they ought to be. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>But two halves make a whole, and when Plasmius and Phantom collided— </em>
</p><p>—</p><p>"And when my ghost half mixed with yours…"</p><p>Vlad searched for words that Danny would understand. Danny stared up at him, breathless.</p><p>"My evil side—" Yes, that sounded right. Plasmius, after all, wanted and wanted and wanted. Wasn't that the basis for evil? "—It overwhelmed you."</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>It might've been Phantom's form. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>But Plasmius got exactly what he wanted - control. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Cunning, vindictive, suave, ruthless… just how he'd always imagined a perfect Phantom to be. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Rings of energy rippled around them. The ghost's eyes sprung open, vivid and burning, a silent scream in the air. The coldfire swirled in the center of the room, blue flames burning the oxygen from the air as the two combined, unstable and violent, fusing together in the heart of Vlad's lab. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Vlad - weakened, frightened, cold - cowered on the tile, staring up at his creation. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"…What have I done?"</em>
</p><p>—</p><p>Danny stared at him for a long time, speechless. No doubt imagining the described scene for himself in his head.</p><p>The lab seemed quiet. So quiet.</p><p>At last, the boy managed to ask, "What happened to my future self?"</p><p>Vlad closed his eyes, turning away. Of course, the one thing the boy would ask - thinking, as usual, only of himself. Vlad put up his hand, whether to block out the memories, or silence Daniel, he didn't know.</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>"This is your fault." </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Even from the table, shaking in agony and unable to move, Daniel somehow sounded so righteous, so judgemental. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>The fusion - the ghost - had thrown themselves (itself?) out the portal doors, causing a cascading failure behind it, destroying the portal as it fled. Perhaps Phantom, wherever he was inside that </em>
  <em>
    <strong>thing</strong>
  </em>
  <em>, had retained enough sense to quarantine his new form in the confines of the Zone. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Vlad spat. A hero until the end. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"No, it's </em>
  <em>
    <strong>yours</strong>
  </em>
  <em>," Vlad said, getting to his feet, nearly stumbling in his exhaustion. He felt so hollow. "If you'd just joined me—" </em>
</p><p>
  <em>A bitter laugh. "Joined you? In case you didn't notice, my ghost half just </em>
  <em>
    <strong>did</strong>
  </em>
  <em>, apparently, and look how that turned out. No, this is all your fault. </em>
  <em>
    <strong>Every</strong>
  </em>
  <em> misery in your life is </em>
  <em>
    <strong>your fault…" </strong>
  </em>
  <em>Another, harsher laugh. "…and you don't even realize it, do you?" </em>
</p><p>
  <em>A snarl, and Vlad's hand closed around the scalpel on the operating tray, and before he could blink, he buried it in Daniel's chest. Daniel gasped, straining against his bonds, but the blood flowed freely from the wound. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Vlad staggered back, staring at the spurting red, then at his bloodstained hands. "I didn't mean—"</em>
</p><p>—</p><p>"Some things, my boy…" Vlad began, facing Danny, the memory darkening his eyes.</p><p>—</p><p>
  <em>Danny choked and coughed, lips wet with blood. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Always knew you were a frootloop," he choked. "About time you knew it, too."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Vlad's gut spiked with the suckerpunch. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Face hardening, he raised the scalpel again, and stabbed down hard; stabbed, and stabbed, and stabbed again, until there was nothing left of him. </em>
</p><p>—</p><p>"…Are better left unsaid."</p><p>Danny shuddered, eyes shutting for a moment, before he opened them again. Vlad moved towards the consoles, looking down at the images flickering on the screens, and moving to the squalor around him.</p><p>How far he'd fallen.</p><p>"If any good came out of this, it's that ten years without ghost powers…" he trailed off, eyes falling on an old framed photo of his college days; Maddie, Jack, and Vlad, smiling for the photographer. "…have given me a chance to see what a fool I'd been."</p><p>Before the accident, Vlad thought he had nothing, but after the loss, he knew the truth. He'd had his life, his power, his fame, his wealth. He had all those possibilities laid out before him, futures that he'd only dreamt of. Now—broken, cold, hollow, living in hiding and cowering in fear, Vlad knew how much he'd lost.</p><p>He'd been a fool to think Daniel would ever join him. That Daniel could be swayed to his side. All that effort, everything he had, thrown away in the endeavor to get the halfa on his side. Sacrificing everything to seize the one thing he lacked: Love. Validation.</p><p>Family.</p><p>But now he was here, barricaded in his hideout with nowhere else to go, trapped with the one person who would surely want him dead. It would be so simple for Daniel, too; without his powers, Vlad held no chance against Phantom, even in his teenage form.</p><p>He'd done his best, done what he thought was the right thing, and now, despite his best efforts, today was judgement day.</p><p>Danny stayed quiet for a long moment, then stepped forward. Vlad forced himself not to flinch.</p><p>"Maybe that's all anybody needs." Danny said, shoulders settling. "…A second chance."</p><p>Vlad's head snapped towards Danny in surprise. Could Phantom mean—? No… impossible…</p><p>Danny looked up at Vlad, deep in thought.</p><p>"You still have those Ghost Gauntlets?"</p><p>Vlad's eyes went wide. Could it be?</p><p>Then, reality sunk in.</p><p>Danny <em>didn't </em>know. <em>Couldn't </em>know the half of it, not with that reaction.</p><p>Vlad's mind whirled, scrambling for purchase. Danny looked up at him with curious, almost <em>trusting </em>eyes -</p><p>And in them, Vlad saw a spark of a chance. A way to change the future. Danny was here, standing in his hideout, stuck in some anomaly pulled to the future before any of the tragedies had occurred.</p><p>If a past Phantom never saw his family die, never split and merged with Plasmius, never went rogue - what would the world look like, then?</p><p>Carefully, a plan began forming in his mind.</p><p>"I'm sure they're around here somewhere," Vlad said, a smile creeping onto his face. "…Why do you ask?"</p>
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